Ireland Punished By Tamim Iqbal Century In Dhaka

Bangladesh wrapped up a 3-0 series victory over Ireland with a 79-run win after Tamim Iqbal hit a maiden One Day International century in the third match in Dhaka. Bangladesh posted an impressive 293 for seven before bowling Ireland out for 214 in 45.3 overs.

Tamim and Shahriar Nafees put on 109 for the first wicket before Nafees was caught by Reinhardt Strydom off of Alex Cusack for 54. Aftab Ahmed was bowled second ball by Cusack but Tamim proved a harder nut to crack, going on to make 129 from 137 balls.

He hit 16 fours and a six before being the sixth man out, caught by vice-captain William Porterfield, bowled by David Langford-Smith.

There was a slight middle-order wobble engineered by Langford-Smith and Kevin O'Brien, as Mohammad Ashraful (22), Shakib Al Hasan (seven), and Raqibul Hasan (two) all departed quickly before late runs from Mahmadullah (49 not out) and Mashrafe Mortaza (16) ensured Bangladesh had made the best use of winning the toss.

The impressive Langford-Smith picked up three for 53, Cusack two for 30 and Kevin O'Brien two for 58.

Kevin's brother Niall led the Irish run chase, scoring 70 runs from 74 balls, but he received little support and that proved to be Ireland's undoing in the pursuit of a tricky target. They didn't help themselves with four run outs as the next best score was 37 from opener Strydom.

Pick of the bowlers was Shakib Al Hasan, who made up for his failure with the bat to take two for 46 with Mashrafe Mortaza at his economical best, only conceding 30 runs from nine overs.